09/07/2017

Sally here with a look at the work of Mogorosi Motshumi, and a comic by Kyle Baker, plus the final list of entries for the 2017 Comics Workbook Composition Competition.

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The page above is from part 1 of the 360 Degrees Trilogy by Mogorosi Motshumi. He is the first black South African to make a long form comic. The first part of the trilogy is The Initiation, which came out last year. Mogorosi Motshumi has led an eventful and difficult life, and comics have always been a part of how he survived. Now in his 60s and fighting failing eyesight and other illnesses, he is trying to finish as much work as he can. There’s a recent article in The New Yorker about him, providing an overview of his life and work to date.

“It was around this time (the age of 9) that he started reading comic books that his older brother brought home from high school. Though some were local comics written in the colonial language of Afrikaans, he preferred American superhero comics, like “Spider-Man.” “These comics, they always had solutions,” he told me. In a comic book, evil exists, but justice prevails. Villains rise up, but heroes rise to meet them. “That is the light that you’re looking for,” he said. When policemen persecuted the Hulk, he felt vindicated in his hatred of authority. “He’d run and run and run until he could run no more, and he’d start to fight back,” Motshumi told me. “That was my kind of world.” He taught himself to draw in his grandmother’s backyard, tracing characters in the sand with his fingers.“

I pulled this comic by Kyle Baker out of a dollar longbox the other day and was delighted to peruse it. Bummer that the cassette tape it once came with wasn’t around to listen to! The comic came out in 1994 and was a collaboration between Kyle Baker, hip-hop legend KRS-One, and Marshall Chess. The cassette was a live performance of the story, and included some original tracks as well. The comic itself is about a rapper named Big Joe Krash, and his younger friends Malcolm and Minasha, who are struggling with school on a number of levels. The message of the comic is about “breaking the chains” – using education and knowledge of culture and history to free the mind.

I love Kyle Baker’s artwork – his lines and coloring always grabs me – so the real pleasure in this comic comes from that of course!

You’re supposed to turn the page whenever you see/hear the word “WORD!” down in the corner. Fun.

I found this Modern Masters Volume 20 preview on Issuu which is all about Kyle Baker and includes a lengthy interview with him. They call it a “preview” but you can pretty much read the whole thing online if your vision is good enough! Check it out HERE.

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Sally is a cartoonist, educator, and journalist based in Pittsburgh, PA. She makes comics about Pittsburgh and bird watching, and co-writes the "Suzy and Cecil" daily strip (with Gabriella Tito). She facilitates the Comics Workbook Rowhouse Residency, is a managing editor of the CW Daily News, and runs the CW Roller Derby "of the mind" League. She is focused on documenting the current and historic place of women in the comics industry, is working to build the Women's Comics Library, and is developing a comics curriculum by and for girls.